Ravi Bopara is a lucky young man. He opens the batting for England in 20-over
and 50-over cricket, without a rival in sight, except Kent's Joe Denly.

The last time he was in Barbados he scored his maiden Test hundred after being dropped on four. And he has a contract with the Indian Premier League franchise Kings XI Punjab that would be worth £310,00 if he does the full six weeks.

"I would welcome it being in England," Bopara said yesterday about the prospect of the IPL being relocated. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that as long as the county schedule doesn't change and the West Indies tour remains unchanged then why not? I think it's a little bit disappointing it won't be played in India. What I was looking forward to was the crowds, the hype, the whole IPL thing was exciting."

It has to be very doubtful whether an IPL tournament in an English spring – sans heat, sans huge crowds, sans glamour, sans everything except the players – is worth the candle; hence South Africa's emergence as favourites. But for the moment Bopara hasn't even signed his contract with the team based in Punjab, where his parents grew up, and has enough on his plate in trying to win the one-day series against West Indies, standing at 1-1.

Bopara, indeed, has so much on his plate that you wonder if he is actually lucky at all or, instead, destined to be another of the system's victims. He has everything it takes to be a master batsman, but the system could channel him into being a jack of all formats and trades.

His bowling has not progressed since he made his England one-day debut two years ago, and he should be taking over some of Paul Collingwood's duties. His fielding – where again he should be the equal of, and successor to, Collingwood – has gone backwards, because his concentration wanders.

Like so many young England batsmen, he has been shunted up and down the order, and from format to format, but at last he has been given a niche as a one-day opener. "I'd like to see myself opening long-term. I've always wanted to do it and I'm so happy I've got my opportunity with England," he said, although that doesn't square with the fact that he did not open for Essex before the job was dumped on him in India, when England's one-day series was past repair.

His career to date is all too similar to Ian Bell's. Talent and technique, but a lack of hunger – bred from being on the road all the time – to turn pretty 30s into big hundreds. Bopara needs to change soon, because the system won't.